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| India-Pakistan | ||
| We wonÂ’t pursue Taliban leaders in Pakistan: Gates | ||
| 2009-12-07 | ||
| WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s decision to bolster the US military presence in Afghanistan is aimed in part at bringing the Taliban to the negotiating table on US terms, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday. “I think that the likelihood of the leadership of the Taliban, or senior leaders, being willing to accept the conditions… depends in the first instance on reversing their momentum right now, and putting them in a position where they suddenly begin to realise that they’re likely to lose,” he said. Gates also said the US would not pursue Taliban leaders in Pakistan and that it was up to Islamabad to address the threat posed by the terrorists to its territory. His comments followed reports that said the White House had granted authority to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to expand a bombing campaign in Pakistan by unmanned aircraft to strike the Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives. “Pakistan is a sovereign government. We are in a partnership with them. I think at this point it’s up to the Pakistani military to deal with this problem,” Gates said. He added that the US had confidence that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal was secure despite the threat posed by the insurgents. “We’re comfortable” with the security of the country’s atomic weapons, Gates said.
Referring to the last time US intelligence had a fix on Bin Laden’s whereabouts, Gates said, “I think it’s been years.”
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 Who is guiding all those Predators flying over key bits of Pakistan, then? The tooth fairy? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-12-07 18:03 |
| #3 Once again one hand tied behind our back military philosophy... Agreed, borgboy. It was stupid in Korea, it was ten times stupid in Vietnam (thanks, LBJ, Nixon...), and it's stupid here. Unfortunately, the only way to actually DO what needs to be done in Pakistan starts with mushroom clouds over about a dozen Pakistani cities, followed by about 200,000 US troops. First, we don't have the troops, second we don't have a military commander willing to even voice such a plan, and third, we don't have a CINC with the courage to make a bold statement. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2009-12-07 15:36 |
| #2 History repeats itself but not in detail. We wouldn't pursue the Chinese/Koreans north of the Yalu River; we wouldn't pursue the North Vietnamese/Vietcong into North Vietnam/Cambodia. Once again one hand tied behind our back military philosophy... |
| Posted by: borgboy 2009-12-07 12:45 |
| #1 of course not that would make sense. Instead we will just send them more AID money that the bigwigs can sipher off. |
| Posted by: chris 2009-12-07 07:58 |